Who are these garbage people and are you one of them? Almost 1 in 5 Montanans say they're guilty of illegal trash dumping

Montanans are less likely to illegally dump garbage than people in most states, but still 17 percent of people here said they gave old TVs, couches, used mattresses and other junk the heave-ho without regard to who will have to clean it up.

That compares with only 5 percent of Alaskans saying they illegally dump trash, and, at the other end of the spectrum, the 43 percent of people in Kentucky who said they dump debris illegally in a survey commissioned by Sleepopolis.

As for Montana's neighbors, the percent of illegal dumpers was 35 percent in South Dakota, 28 percent in North Dakota, 14 percent in Wyoming, 23 percent in Idaho.

TVs and mattresses are the items most likely to be illegally dumped.

Other findings: A quarter of Americans have left trash on the sidewalk, and about as many would report a neighbor who illegally dumped trash.

The result of this illegal dumping is public lands and spaces turned into dumping grounds, putting the problem and financial burden on others.

In Great Falls, Steel Etc. will take computer keyboards and towers. They won't take monitors or televisions, which often have heavy metals such as mercury. Those typically end up in landfills.

Sleepopolis, which commissioned the survey, is a mattress-review site and concerned about mattress disposal, reminding people to arrange collection by the local authorities or take their trash to official dumping grounds.